Fire Risk in Whisky-based Method of Disinfection of SARS-CoV-2

Protecting against the COVID-19 virus might—might—be able to involve both pleasure and risk, in the method outlined in a new study: “Possibility of Disinfection of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) in Human Respiratory Tract by Controlled Ethanol Vapor Inhalation,” Tsumoru Shintake, arXiv 2003.12444. (Thanks to Vaughn Tan for bringing this to our attention.) The author, at Okinawa Institute […]

Intentional Fire-Spreading by Raptors in Australia [research study]

Some birds intentionally spread fire from place to place, sometimes in cooperation with other birds, says this new study. “Intentional Fire-Spreading by ‘Firehawk’ Raptors in Northern Australia,” Mark Bonta, Robert Gosford, Dick Eussen, Nathan Ferguson, Erana Loveless, and Maxwell Witwer, Journal of Ethnobiology, vol. 37, no. 4, 2017, pp. 700-718. The authors write: “We document Indigenous […]

Non-crackling campfires not (quite so) relaxing?

Professor Christopher Dana Lynn, who is a ‘psychobiocultural’ investigator in the Department of Anthropology, at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, US, has performed what might be one of the only studies to have scientifically investigated the relaxing effects of sitting around a campfire. Although his findings confirm that “hearth and campfires induce relaxation as part […]

Further fiery adventures of adventurous 25 year old male students (chapter the next)

Yet another medical report concerning fiery exhuberance in young adults: “Acute Unintentional Intoxication with Paraffin in a 25-Year old Patient — Clinical case report,” Andon Chibishev and Natasa Simonovska, Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, epub May 10, 2014. (Thanks to investigator Ivan Oransky for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at University Clinic […]

Flammable trousers: then, and later, and now

Behold three eras in the international saga of trouser flammability. THEN: The 2005 Ig Nobel Prize for agricultural history was awarded to James Watson of Massey University, New Zealand, for his study, concerning the period between World War I and World War II, called “The Significance of Mr. Richard Buckley’s Exploding Trousers.” LATER: This month, in 2013, the […]